El castillo del mal

"Castle of Evil" is haunted castle movie much in the style of Roger Corman and England's Hammer productions. Although it doesn't quite measure up to those productions, it is a competent little horror flick.

The story involves a group of people who are summoned to a mysterious castle for the reading of the will of the man who has virtually destroyed each of their lives individually. Their host unfortunately has just passed away, or has he? The film contains most of the usual horror cliches and settings. There are the secret passages, sliding doors, dark shadows, murders and the requisite mysterious housekeeper.

The film is boosted by its veteran cast of actors who had all seen better days but were still able to deliver solid performances. Scott Brady is the hero of the piece and Virginia Mayo effectively plays a discarded mistress. Hugh Marlowe is along as a doctor, David Brian as a lawyer and the lovely Lisa Gaye as Brady's love interest. Shelley Morrison is quite good as the housekeeper.

What now makes this film memorable is the resemblance of the character "Kovic" to a certain former U.S. president. See if you agree.

I saw this movie years ago on wnew TVs creature features in New Jersey . The basic plot people get bumped off one by one in a gothic castle by a robotic monster that resembles a dead man who made sure he would get revenge on those responsible for his death . A solid b movie cast Scott Brady , Virginia mayo , Hugh Marlow , lisa Gaye , Back in 1966 this was scary , by today's standards it's pretty tame compared to slasher movies. Good soundtrack and good performances . A lady caretaker with a pet anole lizard who watches on a tv monitor and controls the zombie robot creature that kills and seems unstoppable. It's a good b movie ftom the 1966.

The above quote, as insane as it is, is from this odd little horror film. In fact a lot of this film is insane...and watchable IF you like schlocky movies.

When the film starts, six folks who hated Kovic (and vice-versa) are invited to the dead guy's mansion to discuss his will. He promises to give them his fortune but they need to figure out which of them booby-trapped his experiment and made him into a horrid dead guy who is missing part of his face. However, it's all a pretext just to get them in the house to kill them one by one.

The premise is ordinary enough but the execution is rather poor. And the plot is just nuts--with zombies and lasers and all sorts of silliness that simply don't belong in a movie! Overall, a rather stupid but oddly enjoyable mess of a film.

One part Roger Corman Poe movie, one part "Ten Little Indians," and one part "Stagecoach," in that six disparate (but stereotypical) character types are thrown in together in a deadly situation, "Castle of Evil" is cheap, but not bad, if you go with it. Six suspects of the murder of a vindictive scientist are gathered together by the victim in his creepy castle and told to ferret out the killer among them; the others will then become heirs to the dead man's fortune. Except that the dead man may not be quite as dead as they think. Talky, static scenes are offset by some genuinely creepy moments. The cast of veterans is for the most part fine (Virginia Mayo as an aging working girl is the weak link) though it does look a bit like the horror version of one of those A.C. Lyles old-timer Westerns of the same era. An odd sci-fi angle fights the horror angle a bit, but not fatally so. Worth a look...if you can find it.

It's a shame, movies like this are generally what I'm looking for, but `Castle of Evil' doesn't even manage the level of suspense of a `Dark Shadows' episode - and is about as talky and stagy as that series. On the whole, this movie is down there somewhere with the Philippino `Blood Island' series, and the more than competent cast gives some of the most wooden performances of their careers. It is easy to see that Hugh Marlowe was just about ready to begin his interminable run on `Another World' because this is about as close to the Soaps as horror ever comes.

The plot is a tried-and-true midnight will reading preceding the six people locked in a house knowing one of them is a murderer routine. Fair enough, but the movie betrays what interest the audience might have in trying to resolve the mystery by showing us the murderer in the first few minutes, then even going so far as to demonstrate the means used for the slayings before the mystery is even fully underway. What could have been an interesting group of characters, each suspecting the others and forming alliances and theories degenerates into a group of non-entities being stalked by a Slasher-type disfigured killer (with minimal gore). The contrived ending seems far, far too long in coming.

Natives of Nassau will be offended by the racism of the script and hispanics of all backgrounds will no doubt take issue with the pronunciation of the character Lupe's name (sounds like `Loopy'). Scott Brady seems to be dating one of his daughter's friends, and poor Hugh Marlowe just looks confused as Virginia Mayo's tramp character (`just call me Sable, dear') comes onto him. Overall, one gets the feeling everyone in the cast just wanted to get their check and forget about the whole ordeal. Perhaps we should do them a favor and do the same.